A college friend teaches at the Naval War College. Most of these "Pentagon planned for X" stories are breathless reporting on some scenario put together by a low-level officer as a training exercise. Often some component is something "hot" in the culture at the moment to make the training exercise more compelling for trainees. This is also why there was, for example, pentagon "plans" for a zombie apocalypse, etc.
Was about to comment with the same, the military creates all sorts of plans for all sorts of scenarios, even completely implausible ones. In the 1930s for instance, the US had an actual war plan for an invasion of Canada (War Plan Crimson, as a part of War Plan Red which was a general war with the UK) and Mexico (War Plan Green)! These plans were made not because we really had any intention of invading Canada or Mexico, but because it gave our military planners something new to work on. And as a part of this they could come up with new ideas or theories that could be applied to more likely threats, and this planning is a good way to help train officers and sharpen minds for strategic thought
Reminds me of a story that made it onto HN some months (years maybe? how time flies) back about an entrance exam prompt to some British university program requiring the candidate to craft a message defending some unsavory deed on the part of the UK government. That kind of "gaming" is super-common and very valuable in (for example) political science circles, so wasn't, per se, a bit weird or bad or even unusual, but was made to seem so for a headline.
[EDIT] specifically I think the prompt was something like "It's 10 years in the future, such-and-such party has control of government and can be assumed to hold policy positions basically the same as they do now. General world situation is X. The government has just violently put down mass protests over [something]. Craft a statement for the prime minister defending these actions as necessary for the preservation of the government and protection of general welfare." Which is a completely normal—if simple—sort of poli-sci exercise.
My thoughts exactly. People do this sort of thing to spice up training that must done. This is done in other fields as well like software development, eg. “in this tutorial we will be building a game with space zombies where...”
On the other hand, games are never just games there’s always a point.
> "global cyber campaign to expose injustice and corruption and to support causes it deem[s] beneficial... The group... funnelling ... bitcoin to ... "worthy recipients"
> The Pentagon war game documents ... revealed after ... Representative ... called for the government to "freeze" the money of demonstrators after country-wide protests
> "One of the most important tools in the authoritarian toolkit is the ability to freeze the funding of legitimate political dissent,"
> By separating the infrastructure of money from the infrastructure of state power, bitcoin makes it that much harder for this type of politically motivated confiscation.
People have been using bitcoin to donate to Snowden or get money to people in place like Venezuela. Cyprus happened. Now it might happen that anyone who protests might lose their ability to access banking services.
Yet somehow many here think this is just a scenario.
> Now it might happen that anyone who protests might lose their ability to access banking services.
What? Why? How? Did you just make that up? Beyond that, if you lose access to banking services then bitcoin isn't going to help you since you need banking services to turn bitcoin into usable money.
> The group, called Zbellion, encourages cyber attacks against organizations that support "the establishment," funnelling stolen cash into bitcoin to make "small, below the threshold donations" to "worthy recipients" and Zbellion members.
That happens. Most of the non-drug and non-porn sections on dark net marketplaces are about tools for doing this specific thing, and creating completely parallel identities for bank accounts and investing.
Illicit funds in, get crypto, leave crypto into fake/real/not-you person bank account.
They even have entire marketplaces for compromised windows computers, so that you can find a computer near the address of someone's compromised visa card, so that it is more likely your transactions will not get blocked because it looks to be in the same area.
They're not about "the establishment" and "worthy recipients" though, they are ordinary criminals, which is great news for "the establishment", because the people that want to scam people or phish info etc are usually quite aware that they wouldn't be able to do that if it wasn't for "the system" at large operating at a very stable level.
It's more lucrative and much safer to be a criminal in a stable, advanced society with lots of laws and regulation and little social mobility than being a criminal in Somalia. Successful criminals don't want to see society end or even change massively, they are doing fine.
So, from the comments, it's not a real action plan, more like a scenario for case analysis.
Which is a shame. I'd really like to read about how well blockchain technology -- which is based on very transparent p2p communication -- would fare against the NSA or the Great Chinese Firewall if the US or China actually wanted to stop it.
The whole public transaction log makes it easy to trace every transaction made by a person, especially in widespread use. If you want to stop bitcoin, making using it a crime and then set up false flag merchants (or give immunity to merchants for cooperating) and it becomes trivial to track individuals.
And as for p2p communication, again, easy to find and charge anybody participating in the network.
Alternatively, don't make bitcoin illegal, just heavily use it to track and arrest people using it for already illegal things, preferably in a shock and awe way where you make a big show of arresting a bunch of criminals at once and then brag in the media about how bitcoin made it all possible.
Bitcoin is terrible at privacy unless you're trying really hard to conceal your identity.
Change bitcoin to its successor and "theft" and selective redistribution to transference and automatic redistribution along a curve back to labor or into public works, and I think you've got something that probably should destroy finance, insurance, etc.
If software world managed to create esoteric languages like brainfuck, expect from any military to study a hypothetical spontaneous human combustion pandemic. The exercise itself is useful for learning despite the comical outcome or product.
Tracking funds across a transparent ledger like Bitcoin is unfortunately too easy. After going after individuals is trivial. Would love to know if they're also planning to attack more private options decentralized networks like Monero!
The cheapest way to deal with a Bitcoin rebellion is to use some of the military budget and buy and run Bitcoin miners to dominate the chain and then do stuff like double spending, etc to undermine confidence in Bitcoin.
Meh. Just buy off Bitcoin's developers and stall the development. This would cause fees to grow explosively and cause companies like Steam and Stripe to drop support, undermining the original purpose of Bitcoin (to pay for stuff). Much cheaper than entering the cutthroat mining business.
Holy shit, this is absolutely fascinating. I find it incredibly interesting that this scenario of a "Generation Z Rebellion" was constructed in 2018, and projected increasing tensions until 2026, at which point things would flame up. Yet the current pandemic has essentially forced everybody's hand and put history on fast forward. Maybe, in the end, the pandemic will end up being a strategically good thing for the United States, at least compared to how our adversaries will fare.
Yet the saddest thing about your comment is that even in the face of a virus pandemic that sees no borders or races, you still see it as a "good thing" against your "adversaries" as if you're somehow worthier that everybody else in the planet.
dhosek|5 years ago
openasocket|5 years ago
ashtonkem|5 years ago
karatestomp|5 years ago
[EDIT] specifically I think the prompt was something like "It's 10 years in the future, such-and-such party has control of government and can be assumed to hold policy positions basically the same as they do now. General world situation is X. The government has just violently put down mass protests over [something]. Craft a statement for the prime minister defending these actions as necessary for the preservation of the government and protection of general welfare." Which is a completely normal—if simple—sort of poli-sci exercise.
mrep|5 years ago
[0]: https://old.reddit.com/r/memes/comments/cfbgj1/actual_air_fo...
morty_s|5 years ago
On the other hand, games are never just games there’s always a point.
NicolasGorden|5 years ago
> The Pentagon war game documents ... revealed after ... Representative ... called for the government to "freeze" the money of demonstrators after country-wide protests
> "One of the most important tools in the authoritarian toolkit is the ability to freeze the funding of legitimate political dissent,"
> By separating the infrastructure of money from the infrastructure of state power, bitcoin makes it that much harder for this type of politically motivated confiscation.
People have been using bitcoin to donate to Snowden or get money to people in place like Venezuela. Cyprus happened. Now it might happen that anyone who protests might lose their ability to access banking services.
Yet somehow many here think this is just a scenario.
root_axis|5 years ago
What? Why? How? Did you just make that up? Beyond that, if you lose access to banking services then bitcoin isn't going to help you since you need banking services to turn bitcoin into usable money.
vmception|5 years ago
That happens. Most of the non-drug and non-porn sections on dark net marketplaces are about tools for doing this specific thing, and creating completely parallel identities for bank accounts and investing.
Illicit funds in, get crypto, leave crypto into fake/real/not-you person bank account.
They even have entire marketplaces for compromised windows computers, so that you can find a computer near the address of someone's compromised visa card, so that it is more likely your transactions will not get blocked because it looks to be in the same area.
luckylion|5 years ago
It's more lucrative and much safer to be a criminal in a stable, advanced society with lots of laws and regulation and little social mobility than being a criminal in Somalia. Successful criminals don't want to see society end or even change massively, they are doing fine.
ibitcoin|5 years ago
globular-toast|5 years ago
vslira|5 years ago
Which is a shame. I'd really like to read about how well blockchain technology -- which is based on very transparent p2p communication -- would fare against the NSA or the Great Chinese Firewall if the US or China actually wanted to stop it.
colechristensen|5 years ago
And as for p2p communication, again, easy to find and charge anybody participating in the network.
Alternatively, don't make bitcoin illegal, just heavily use it to track and arrest people using it for already illegal things, preferably in a shock and awe way where you make a big show of arresting a bunch of criminals at once and then brag in the media about how bitcoin made it all possible.
Bitcoin is terrible at privacy unless you're trying really hard to conceal your identity.
WealthVsSurvive|5 years ago
diegoperini|5 years ago
kim0|5 years ago
RcouF1uZ4gsC|5 years ago
lawn|5 years ago
(Some would say this has already happened.)
dmichulke|5 years ago
The other miners are surely free not to accept blocks with double spends, no?
ur-whale|5 years ago
scared2|5 years ago
asymmetric|5 years ago
papito|5 years ago
rm2040|5 years ago
IAmWorried|5 years ago
lgl|5 years ago